Hunters' Children
by HikaruTsubasa
Summary: The second generation of monster brats are entering the Hunter Exam, while back at their homes, chaos is created by younger  and older  siblings…
1. Chapter 1

Hunter's Children

The second generation of monster brats are entering the Hunter Exam, while back at their homes, chaos is created by younger (and older) siblings…

Chapter one

In which Shira and Itoko leave for the Hunter Exam.

"Shira! Time for breakfast!"

The girl with sandy blonde hair groaned.

"I don't wanna get out of bed… Not even for breakfast…" She mumbled, then her eyes snapped open.

She snatched her cellphone from the small table beside her bed. The display read 11:36.

"AAAARRRGH! I'VE OVERSLEPT!" She shrieked, got dressed in record speed, charged down the stairs, and slipped. Smooth wooden steps plus not properly worn socks equals disaster.

Fortunately, the stair she had slipped on was the third one from the bottom. Unfortunately, her father had witnessed the magnificent fall.

"Be more careful Shira, or I won't let you go to the Hunter exam!" he said playfully.

"I'll be fine! After all, I've inherited your brains!" she flicked her fringe out of her face, stalked past her father, and promptly tripped over a large china tortoise.

"Ow!" she yelped. "I don't remember that being there."

"My brains aren't the only thing you've inherited..." muttered her father, emerald eyes sparkling with amusement.

Shira glared at him, her own jade green eyes flashing annoyedly. She stomped into the kitchen, and yelled over her shoulder, "Dad! What's for breakfast? If it's even vaguely purple and has lumpy blobs in it, I'll pass, just so you know."

"Oh? That means more blueberry pancakes for the rest of us-"

"I take that back!" she came out with an enormous amount of purple-ish pancakes piled high on her plate, sat down, and started eating voraciously.

"Shira, if you eat that fast you'll get indigestion-"

"And if I eat slow I might miss the exam! What a dilemma!"

"Not likely. Now slow down!"

"...Mum, what's a dilemma?" asked Hiro, Shira's eight-year-old brother.

Their mother blinked. "...Its a situation where only one outcome is possible and-"

"Mum, that's hitsuzen."

"...Oh. Thanks Shira."

"Hiro, a dilemma is a situation where it's very difficult to decide what to do because all the choices seem equally bad or good." explained her father very precisely.

"...So Shira nee-chan's between a rock and a hard place?"

"That's about right. Even if the whole thing's in her imagination."

"...Can I enter the Hunter exam?"

"In three years eleven months and sixteen days. Shira! How many pancakes have you already eaten?"

"...Um... Twelve?"

"TWELVE?" yelled Hiro. "When did you have the TIME!"

"Oh! Time to go!"

Shira grabbed her backpack, the rest of the pancakes, and her slim rapier named Hisame, 'Sleet', for its slightly blue sheen.

"Bye Dad, Mum, Hiro!" she called. "I'll come back home as a Hunter or not at all!"

"Then you won't be going home."

Shira laughed. Itoko, who was taking the exam with her, had made the ominous comment. She was a slim thirteen-year-old girl with pink hair and gold eyes.

"When'd you get here? And don't be so pessimistic!"

"Only one newbie passes to become a Hunter every three years."

"That's what I mean! Don't be a killjoy! Anyway, LETS GO!" yelled Shira at top volume. She started running in the direction of the docks, and then shouted, "BYE MUM! BYE DAD! BYE HIRO! ITOKO, IF YOU DON'T HURRY UP I'LL SAY BYE TO YOU AS WELL!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

In which Shira embarrasses everyone, Itoko gets saddled with the luggage, both of them scare a lot of people, and the duo meet four others about their age taking the Hunter exam.

"Wow! It's so crowded! Itoko, Dad said the ship has a red and black dragon breathing gold flames painted on the hull!"

Itoko sighed. She was beginning to regret not making Shira go to the exam on her own.

"And it's named The Firedrake! Isn't that cool?"

Shira herself seemed completely oblivious to the stares of the people around them.

"ITOKO! I found it!"

Itoko looked at the ship. It wasn't BAD, as ships go, but it wasn't good either. The two of them walked up the gangplank to the man standing at the top, probably the captain if his hat was anything to go by.

"Two to Dolle harbour please!" called Shira cheerfully. While she was sorting out payment, Itoko looked around. There were already about twenty-five people onboard, all buff and tough looking. Itoko figured most of them won't even get to the exam site.

Hang on. Two Nen users, and one of them felt ominously familiar. She looked for the source, and saw two small figures sitting a little away from the center of activity, quietly watching.

"Here!"

She blinked as Shira loaded her backpack, leftover pancakes, rapier, and her boots into her arms.

"Don't lose them!" called the demon of hyperactivity, who then jumped barefoot into the rigging of the ship, climbing about like a monkey, pretending to fall off to scare some random people on the docks, actually falling off and landing on the deck like a cat, climbing back up and jumping off again, but this time doing mid-air flips, all while chatting with the sailors at an incomprehensible, crazy, and completely insane speed. Show off. And the sailors were actually able to keep up. Amazing.

...How did Shira get into a sugar high this early in the morning anyway?

Itoko took a pancake, ate a piece, and instantly knew exactly why. The pancakes weren't just any pancakes. They were blueberry and chocolate pancakes.

Knowing Shira, she had probably eaten ten or more. Which meant that the girl was going to stay hyperactive for quite some time. Sigh. Her father should've known better than this...

"Hey! Gorgeous!"

She ignored the burly youths trying to get her attention.

"Hey babe, wanna drink to our meeting?"

And the fat guy with plaits in his beard.

"Darling, would you like to-"

"No. Get out of my way now, rat-features."

The man made a gloomy face, which made him look even more like a rat.

"Ooh, cruel girl... Cut me to the quick, you did. Why, I wouldn't stay if you asked me."

"So leave."

"But you could cheer me up. With a ki-"

He froze as Itoko gave him a smile of pure poisonous evil and started emitting bloodlust so powerful that the air around her seemed to darken.

"Did you just say you wanted to die?"

Her voice was hypnotic, evil, and alluring.

"Because it's too easy to oblige..."

The unfortunate man watched in horror as Itoko's forefinger transformed, fingernail mutating into a razor-sharp claw.

"Just too easy..."

The man's headless body fell with a splash into the sea, and his head soon followed. The water around them took on a bloody tinge, and the distinct triangular fins of sharks instantly surrounded the corpse, their razor sharp teeth shredding it to pieces.

Needless to say, from then on all passengers stayed as far away as possible from Itoko, and the flirting stopped abruptly.

"ITOKO!"

Said girl winced slightly. Shira's voice was LOUD!

"Look at this!"

She was waving around a... Snake? No. It looked flatter. Flattened snake?

"It's a coral sea snake! It's one of the most venomous species of sea snakes! Isn't it GORGEOUS!"

Apparently, none of the other passengers shared her sentiments, since they speedily backed away from the violently hissing elapid.

"Huh? ITOKO! YOU'RE BLEEDING!" Shira threw her precious snake overboard, and rushed to Itoko's side.

"What happened! How'd you get hurt! There's blood all over the railing!"

"It's fine. I'm not-"

"It's not fine! We're not even at the exam site and you're already wounded-"

"Shira! It's not my blood!"

"...Oh. Can I have another pancake?"

"NO. I ate all the rest." This wasn't true. She had simply hidden them carefully in a secret compartment in Shira's backpack. It was amazing, how many there were.

"Itoko, you're such a meanie! You couldn't eat those pancakes! They were-"

"WE'RE LEAVING YENDYS HARBOUR! TO THE HUNTER EXAM! HOORAY!"

...The captain sure is enthusiastic, thought Itoko as the ship started moving away from the dock.

"NO! WAIT!"

Itoko turned around. Four small figures were running across the harbour, waving their arms and shouting.

"TOO LATE KIDDIES!" roared the captain. "COME BACK NEXT YEAR!"

The Firedrake's scarlet sails unfurled, and the wind caught them, speeding up.

"NOOOO!" wailed several voices from the docks.

Itoko agreed with the captain. Too late, come back next year- what!

The ship shuddered violently, and changed direction. Itoko shrieked with surprise and nearly fell overboard.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

Shira was at the helm, steering the suddenly very uncomfortable boat.

"Going back to shore, captain! We left a couple of passengers behind!" called Itoko's personal demon, and the ship pitched, the wind pulling it one way while Shira pulled it the other.

They were also right next to a cliff. And the base of it had a gombazillion sharp looking rocks.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO STEER A SHIP!" yelled the captain.

"Not a single clue!" called back Shira cheerfully.

This wasn't reassuring at all.

"Someone stop that crazy girl!" yelled several people.

And the two Nen users simply sat there, watching.

Then Itoko saw the four small figures again, running up to the cliff edge. She could see them better now. Two boys with spiky black hair, a boy with crew-cut blond hair, and a girl with long silver hair.

"JUMP ONTO THE SAIL!" yelled Shira. The captain looked alarmed.

The four seemed to be arguing. And then one of the black-haired boys grabbed the silver-haired girl, and leapt off the cliff, closely followed by the other two.

They hit the sail, and ten spikes pierced the canvas, making holes on it, which quickly tore into vertical rips. Itoko ran to the other side to see what was going on, and blinked. The black-haired boy that had leapt first was holding onto the sail for dear life, and the other three were holding onto him. Then the sail heaved, and all four fell off.

The silver-haired girl yelped as she tried to sit up. "Ow! You're sitting on my hair!"

"Shut up... I'm dead..." groaned one of the spiky-haired boys.

"That was great! Don't you want to do it again?" asked the blond boy. "Yeah. But I wanna jump first next time." answered the other spiky-haired boy. Itoko saw that his hair was tinged green and spiked straight up while the other boy's was pure black and spiked in all directions.

"Hi! I'm Shira!"

And her personal demon was no longer steering. Thank God- wait. If she was here, then...

"Who the hell's steering this tub!" she yelled.

"I'VE GOT IT! AND IT'S THE FIREDRAKE!"

The captain. Whew. At least one person on this tub had some common sense.

"I'm Silva, and she's Kikyo." said the pure-black-haired boy, gesturing at himself, then at the silver-haired girl. "But our grandparents have the same names, so everyone calls us Sil and Kiki to avoid confusion. We're twins." he added, seemingly as an afterthought. Itoko noted that Sil had black eyes, while Kiki had royal blue.

"My name's Karu!" grinned the blond. He had blue eyes too, except his were cerulean.

"Jan Freecss." said the other spiky-haired boy. He was the only one who gave out a surname.

"I'm Itoko."

"What kind of Hunter do you guys wanna be?" asked Shira. "I'm gonna be a Beast Hunter! I really like all sorts of animals!"

This was a serious understatement. Shira LOVED animals, furry, feathery, scaly, or slimy. Her father was always complaining about how the creatures destroyed some valuable electrical equipment or another. And she drew them as well, quite accurately. Her bedroom was littered with pencils, erasers, paper, pencil shavings, and the single pencil sharpener that always got lost.

"I'm gonna be a Beast Hunter too. I want to find new species of animals." answered Jan.

"Me and Kiki are gonna be Blacklist Hunters, like Dad." said Sil.

"I want to be a Treasure Hunter." Karu's face suddenly looked serious. "There's... a particular set of jewels I need to find. What about you, Itoko-san?"

She looked up. "Hm? ...I just want to get a Hunter licence cos it's useful."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

In which several parents make several phone calls, there are apparently two illegal entrants to the exam, there is some gossiping onboard the Firedrake, and Shira's little brother, together with his sidekick, plays a prank on his father. With expected concequences.

Feitan's cellphone rang. He picked it up, and answered, "Kal-"

FEI! Faren's gone missing!

"...Any ideas on where he is?"

If I did, I wouldn't be calling.

"Whatever. So what if he ran away. Your brother did too. Must be a family trait inherited by those with silver hair."

Fei! Don't- hold on. My brother's twins were taking the Hunter Exam. What if Faren followed them?

"That's a possibility. Itoko and Shira are also going to the exam. Apparently, Hisoka would disown the former if she didn't get the licence first try."

With talk on both sides of the family, it's only natural he would want to go too.

"Didn't you say you haven't told your family about Faren?"

I didn't tell them. They think I'm the father, anyway. Only mother suspects something, but it's not like she's actively investigating. Imagine if they found out.

"...Kalluto Zoldyck, a female. Would make headlines in the Zoldyck Daily News."

Ha ha. Well, bye.

She ended the call. Feitan smirked. So, his only child was aiming for the Hunter licence at eleven years of age, huh. Good luck brat. You're gonna need it bad.

Gon? Is Ceri at your place?

Kurapika sounded worried.

"Uh-uh. Have you called Leorio?"

Yes. He hasn't seen her either. She disappeared just before Karu left.

"...You don't think... She followed him to the exam?"

...But she's underage! And she knows it!

"Never stopped Ken and Pon. They both tried to sneak away with Jan."

She's been acting weird since I told her and Karu about the Kuruta six months ago.

"Six months? That's the same time as the time you took to develop your Nen ability!"

...What's that got to do with all- Oh no. She- she went to seek revenge!

"Its just a possibility!" said Gon hurriedly, hoping to calm the Kuruta down.

But it's a highly probable one. I gave up on revenge years ago, and concentrated on the Scarlet Eyes. Karu wants to be a Treasure Hunter to help regain them, but Ceri... She'll become a Blacklist Hunter.

Even though Kurapika didn't say it, Gon knew him well enough to know what he was thinking. She'll become a Blacklist Hunter; or die in the attempt.

Gon? Are you still there?

"Yeah. Tell you what, I'll call Killua and see what he says."

Thanks. He keeps changing phones, so I still don't have the right number.

"Well, that's Killua for you. See ya, and hope you find Ceri soon!"

Thanks. Bye.

After the call ended, Gon realized he should've told Kurapika that he and Killua were two of the six examiners this year.

Itoko stood at the prow of the Firedrake, and breathed in the salty tang of the sea. The sea. She had only seen it once before, but she felt an inexplicable connection with it.

"You like the sea?"

She turned to see Jan, holding a fishing rod. She nodded.

"I don't really know why though." she admitted.

"...Maybe it's because it's so open. You haven't had much freedom in your life, have you?"

Itoko flinched. She turned and snapped, "Its none of your business!"

Jan watched her stalk away. He sensed sadness, pain, and loneliness emanating from her, but all were smothered with ruthlessness and hatred.

He shuddered. Itoko was scary. But he wanted to know why she was like that...

Meanwhile, Karu and Shira were in the rigging, enjoying themselves immensely.

"Whee!" yelled Karu as he balanced on the railing.

"Yahoo!" cried Shira as she cartwheeled to the end of the mast.

"Be careful!" called Kiki nervously from the deck.

"Idiots." muttered Sil, sitting on the other end of the mast.

"Don't be a wet blanket!"

He nearly fell off in shock. Shira had seemingly materialised right next to him.

"When'd you get there!" he yelled, glaring.

"Just now! Wanna play?"

Sil blinked. Shira... was actually more naive than Karu. He hadn't thought that was possible.

"Please?"

...Oh, what the heck. "Fine. Last one to the prow of the ship is a rotten egg!"

The two dashed off, leaving Karu and Kiki alone. Together.

"Er... Well, we're on our way to the Hunter Exam!" said Karu, a little nervously.

They'd been friends since they were both young. But even though they could talk together for hours, there was always something awkward.

"...I guess. Um..." Kiki frantically thought for something interesting to say. "Nice weather we're having."

"Uh, yeah! But Jan said there might be a storm later." the weather. He was talking about the weather.

Royal blue eyes blinked. "But the sun's bright as ever!"

"Well, you know how well Jan is in tune with everything. Except machines and electronics."

"Mm-hmm. Remember when he tried to do internet shopping?"

"How could I forget? The delivery man came with a great big box full of weird stuff, and Rika-san had to give Gon a lecture about not letting Jan, Ken, or Pon on the internet-"

"Gossiping?"

Both of them jumped in surprise. Shira had done her sudden appearing act again.

"Really, that's all that happened? Let me tell you about the stuff my little brother Hiro gets up to!"

In the city of Yendys, number 19 Settle Crescent, the house where four (currently three) completely normal people live.

"AH... AH... AAAAATCHOOOO! Curse you Shira!" growled an eight-year-old boy with black hair and blue eyes.

Phinx looked at him.

"Why curse her?"

"Because I just know it was her gossiping about me to some random people she'd only just met!" Hiro said, looking immensely annoyed.

"Whatever. So, what's your 'genius plan'?" asked the eyebrowless man, sketching the quote marks in the air.

"We completely redecorate Dad's office, including his computer."

Phinx facefaulted. Hiro had inherited Shizuku's trait of being able to say the most ridiculous things with an innocent expression that would put an angel to shame.

"...You know that Shal would roast you alive if he found out you did it, don't you?"

"Then I'll just make sure he doesn't."

Phinx had a really bad feeling about this.

"Anyway," continued Hiro. "lets get started. Uhm... Make it so every time he types the words 'the' or 'if' it'll change to 'elephant'... Reprogram internet modem... Unplug internet modem... Put firewall and other anti-bug software in the trash... Empty trash... Change language and region codes... Disable trackpad and keyboard... Put ultra durable double-sided sticky tape on the bottom of the mouse..."

While Hiro generally made an absolute mess of Shalnark's computer, both hardware and software, Phinx was redecorating the room with various completely mismatched holiday accessories. Christmas trees, tinsel, and baubles, Easter eggs and stuffed rabbit plushies holding baskets, Halloween pumpkin lanterns, spiders, spider webs, and various bones of assorted shape and size, random flags of several obscure countries, and oddly, about ten giant posters of Hisoka. (Who on earth would make posters of him, especially giant ones?)

"Whew! All done!"

The two looked at the room. And burst out laughing. It looked absolutely ridiculous.

They were laughing so hard that they didn't notice Shalnark had come in until he said, "Enjoying yourselves, aren't you. Well, since you were so kind as to give my office a makeover, why don't you clean it up?"

/Two hours later/

"Why... is it that... cleaning up... takes... more time than... making... a mess... ?" grumbled Hiro.

"I have absolutely no idea..." muttered Phinx. "But at least it couldn't get any worse, right?"

Dead wrong.

"HIRO! PHINX! YOU IDIOTS!"

Shal's voice was reminiscent of Uvo's, thought Phinx.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU! NOT THE FIREWALL!"

Oops. Hiro looked nervous. He had forgotten to reinstall the virus block and debugging software.


	4. Chapter 4

Yes! I'd finally got my hands on a computer long enough to upload this chapter! Yes!

Now lets answer those reviews!

Cursed Bunny: Yup, the exam will be totally different. The thing is, it probably won't start till chapter 6 or 7. The reason Killua named his kids after his parents was cos he wanted to boss them around... Or maybe he just couldn't think of anything else. (That sounds suspiciously like me...) About Feitan and Kalluto... They've got a 20 year age gap... but they're so CUTE.

KiGaMi: A rapier is a long thin double-edged sword. (I used a dictionary...) Leorio's child appears in this chapter. And you got all the parents right! (When I started writing this, even I was a bit confused as to who was whose child XP) Yes! I'll write more! (But the actual uploading might take some time.)

Lycorisse: Er... Phinx. I wasn't sure if he should have kids. What do you think? Rika is Jan, Ken, and Pon's mother, but I don't think I made that clear enough at all D;

hina0chan: Well, Shizuku would be smart too if the things people told her didn't go in one ear and out the other.

I just realized something! I'd forgotten the disclaimer in the last three chapters! So here it is:

DISCLAIMER: I don't own HunterXHunter or any of its characters.

* * *

Chapter four

In which there is a storm at sea, they dance in the rain, arrive at Dolle harbour, and play a game... sort of.

"And then, Hiro put all the blame on ME! Can you believe his evilness!" said Shira, gesticulating wildly.

Everyone shook their heads obediently.

"I mean, it's pure evil! I can't- hey! I think there's going to be a storm!" she ran off, leaving them to realize that she had the attention span of a four year old.

"Looks like Jan was right, as usual." said Sil. "It's a biggie too."

\Two hours later\

It was raining. It was pouring. It was BUCKETING. Itoko watched Shira dance around wildly in the ridiculous amounts of rain, her crazy performance occasionally lit up by a jagged fork of lightning. She sighed. Why on earth was that girl still in hyperactive mode? The pancakes should've worn off ages ago.

Shira laughed. She loved rain. Rain! She stomped barefoot in the puddles of water, spraying it everywhere. The lightning flashed. The thunder growled. And Shira danced on, oblivious to the world.

Sil watched. The waves of absolute joy emanating from Shira was infectious. He wanted to dance too. Dance in the rain. His black hair slick with rainwater, he stood up, and joined the wild dance.

Kiki shivered. She hated storms. She flinched with every blinding flash of lightning, the light reflecting in her fearful royal blue eyes. It was always like this, ever since she was little. She would shiver under the blankets, enduring teasing from Sil. And Karu would always defend and comfort her. It bothered Kiki that she had never thanked him for it. Like now, he was holding her hand. She screwed up her courage, and whispered, "Thanks Karu."

Karu smiled. Kiki always worried about the smallest things. "You're welcome." he answered.

Jan yawned. He saw that each of them were in their own worlds, from the joyous dancing of Shira and Sil, Karu taming Kiki's fear, and Itoko watching them a little sadly. Why was she sad? He knew. It's because she's alone...

Suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning struck the mast of the ship, instantly scorching it. Flames leapt up, and a broken spar flew towards Ceri. Before she could react, Faren raised his hand in a slashing motion. And the spar vanished.

"...Th- thanks." she whispered, her voice shaking a little from fright.

"Your fault for being too slow to activate your ability."

Ceri flinched. His voice was as cold as the sea. The wind snapped his hood back, revealing his face. Dark blue hair streaked with bright silver. Yellow eyes tilted upwards, giving him a feline look. Delicate eyebrows slanted down.

Ceri's hood came off as well, and Faren saw light, almost platinum blonde hair surrounding her face, bright pale blue eyes glowing with a sheen of furious determination, and a single earring on her left ear, a crystal that was an identical colour to her eyes.

The sail, blazing, freed itself from the broken mast and swept across the deck, wrapping several sailors and wannabe entrants to the exam in its scorching embrace. Screams of fear and pain cut through the air.

Shira snapped out of her trance-like state, grabbed Hisame, raced to the fallen sail, and started slashing the burning canvas away. The foul smell of scorched flesh searing their nostrils, the others followed suit, some armed with buckets of seawater, others with blades, like Shira.

Karu looked horrified at the blaze. If Kiki was afraid of the dark and storms, he was frightened of fire. He can only just handle candles, but this full on flaming death was too much. His eyes turned scarlet with fear.

Kiki noticed. "Karu!" he had comforted her, and she owed him. "Karu!"

Sil grabbed Karu's shoulders and shook him roughly. "KARU! SNAP OUT OF IT! DO YOU WANNA DIE!"

Karu immediately snarled, "Of course not! I just really hate fire!"

Sil twitched. One of the side effects of having the Scarlet Eyes activated was that Karu got extremely grumpy for at least four hours afterward, depending on how long he had used them.

Shira slashed at the sail, freeing several people. She dragged them to a safer position, and rushed back.

Itoko sighed. Despite all of Shira's efforts, she knew that most of the bodies were already dead.

"May the sea receive these souls, and wash them clean of the violence of their death." whispered Ceri. Faren raised an eyebrow. Praying for strangers? Weird. But Ceri was Ceri, so he kept his mouth shut.

The end of the storm saw a sorry looking Firedrake. The main mast was snapped clean off, the stub splintery and half crushed. The main sail was also gone. The two remaining masts looked like twin lonely trees.

Of the thirty-two Hunter wannabes that were onboard at Yendys harbour were whittled down to a mere twelve: Shira, Itoko, Sil, Kiki, Karu, Jan, two small figures wearing identical hooded cloaks, a man with a lizard tattoo on his neck that seemed to move, a man with a bright blue mohawk, a woman wearing Araibyan style silk robes, and a gloomy looking man with dull orange eyes. Sil had promptly dubbed them the Cloaked Twins, Lizard-Man, Blue Mohawk, Araibyan Sorceress, and Gloomy, respectively.

"DOLLE HARBOUR IN SIGHT!" came the now familiar roar of the overenthusiastic captain. "IS EVERYONE READY TO GO! I'LL GIVE ALL OF YOU A TINY HINT! AIM FOR THE TALL PINE AT THE TOP OF THAT MOUNTAIN!"

Itoko sweatdropped along with everyone else. That was a 'tiny' hint?

"ALRIGHT! BY THE WAY, IF YOU MEET A GIRL NAMED MADELEINE KRUEGER, TELL HER THAT I, THE VALIANT CAPTAIN OF THE FIREDRAKE, AM IN LOVE WITH HER!"

"... "

"... "

"... "

Uh... What?

"Hmph. I think the 'tiny hint' he gave us was a red herring."

"But Sil, we wanna go to that tree!" whined both Shira and Karu, utilizing puppy eyes.

Usually, Sil would have no trouble refusing. However, with Karu's puppy eyes combined with Shira's, it was pointless to resist. He felt his willpower crumbling to dust, which in turn blew away in a nonexistent breeze.

"...Fine. But if it was a red herring, then you guys take the blame for-"

"Hooray! Lets go!"

"Did you even listen to half of what I said?" Sil watched the two scamper off up the path. "...Never mind."

/five minutes later/

"Beware of kingly iguanas?" Jan looked confused. "Whats that supposed to mean?"

"This one says, beware of resentful ingredients," read out Kiki.

"Beware of kaleidoscopic oranges? More like beware of silly warning signs." said Itoko annoyedly.

"...Kay... Eye... Arr... Eye... Kay... Oh..."

Shira looked at him. "Karu, what are you doing?"

"Kiriko!"

"What?"

"The first letters of the words 'kingly', 'iguana', 'resentful', 'ingredients', 'kaleidoscopic', and 'oranges' spells out 'Kiriko'! "

"Kiriko? You mean the shape-shifting rat-fox?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Ohhhh! This means there's Kiriko in this forest! I'm so happy! I've wanted see one for ages! I-"

Itoko looked annoyed. "Shira, will you shut up-"

"-think I drew a picture of one once! Oh, did you know that they can speak? And that-"

"Shira!"

"-they can move at super high speeds? And-"

"SHIRA!"

Birds scattered, screaming. The ground seemed to shake. Everyone flinched.

And miraculously, Shira shut up.

/fifteen minutes later/

"Ohhh! Creepy looking ghost town ahead!" called Shira. Kiki flinched.

"It's looks deserted, but I can sense quite a lot of invisible people. Creeeeeeeeeeeepy..." Sil smirked sideways at his twin.

"Sil! Why you little-"

"Both of you be quiet for a second! Look!"

A group of what looked like young children stood in front of them, all wearing masks. At their head stood a tall figure wearing a monstrous mask, with evil slanting eyes and gaping mouth filled with jagged teeth.

"Doki doki..."

Sil looked annoyed. "Who're these weirdos?"

"Doki doki doki doki..."

"Okay, okay, you guys can stop that," grumbled the tall figure. It had a young, female voice. Karu, Jan, Sil, and Kiki blinked. That voice was weirdly familiar...

"Sorry. Force of habit." mumbled one of the small figures.

"O-kay!" the tall figure took her mask off.

"...ALYSE!"

"...Jan? Kiki? Karu? Sil? What the hell are you all doing here?"

Shira and Itoko looked at the girl's face. Longish messy black hair, brown eyes.

"But-"

"Why-"

"And-"

Jan's voice pierced the confusion.

"But Alyse, Leorio said you couldn't come with us cos of appendicitis!"

Silence ruled.

Alyse scratched her head. "Well... actually, um... I passed last year's Hunter Exam... and I didn't tell you guys cos... uh... Dad was being paranoid about your parents finding out for some weird unreasonable reason... and that's it..."

"... "

"Well... uh... now you're here, I can give you-"

"THE EXCITING QUIZ OF TWO ANSWERS!"

Everyone, including Alyse, sweatdropped. An ancient grandma with a wild-eyed look had screamed out the words.

"You must answer the question with either 1 or 2! You must participate as a group-"

Alyse looked furious. "Hey! Grandma! I'M doing this-"

"Your best friend and your father are drowning in a storm at sea, but you can only save one! Do you choose, 1, your best friend, or 2, your father!"

"... "

"... "

"... "

"... "

"... "

"... "

"All correct! Open the secret way!"

"...But we didn't say anything..."

"Bloody senile grandma! You aren't supposed to interfere! I'm taking your place right now cos you're sick and isn't Dad supposed to be looking after you!"

"I am not sick, and I am most certainly not senile! Young whippersnappers these days..."

"I'm not that young! I'm sixteen!"

"Well I'll have you know that I was over a hundred years old when your father was nineteen!"

While the two were arguing, Shira asked, "Sil, who is that girl?"

"Hm?" Sil looked distracted. "Oh, Alyse is basically our cousin. Her father, Leorio, is a good friend of our parents."

"Hmmm... Like me and Itoko. Her mother and both my parents get along pretty well."

"What about her father?" asked Jan.

Shira winced. "He's... weird, creepy, psychotic, creepy, just plain strange, did I mention creepy? Anyway, I overheard my parents saying something along the lines of, I can't believe those two actually got together, considering their history. Whatever that means-"

"Will you guys stop chatting and get in here!" called Kiki. She was standing by an entrance to a tunnel that went underground. It seemed to be going straight to the tall pine.

/one hour later/

Everyone shivered. The ominous feeling was unmistakable. Doom was drawing nigh. Wolves howled. Ravens screamed. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed as Shira spoke the words of Doom. With a capital D.

"Are we there yet?"

* * *

Madeleine Krueger is probably exactly who you think she is. Poor captain.


End file.
